A politician and former high-ranking police officer attacked a taxi driver after he refused to allow her dog into his cab, a court was told today.

Alison Halford was "enraged and red-faced" hurling a "constant barrage of abuse" at the driver who had come to collect a fare from her home on the evening of January 7 this year, magistrates in Wrexham, North Wales, were told.

Martin Blake was forced to radio for help after being hit by Halford, the Labour Welsh Assembly member for Delyn, who claimed to have powerful friends and threatened to make sure he lost his job, the court was told.

Mr Blake told the court he had never heard anyone "string so many swearwords together in such a short space of time".

Halford, 61, of Prospect Close, Ewloe, North Wales - she is a former assistant chief constable with Merseyside Police - denies one count of assault.

She has also pleaded not guilty to using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour.

Barrister Dawn Pritchard, prosecuting, said Halford accepted that she had drunk both gin and wine when the taxi drew up at her home to collect a friend.

It was when Halford tried to pass her small "terrier-type" dog to the friend, who was sitting on the back seat of the K-registered Vauxhall Cavalier, that Mr Blake pointed out the no-dog rule.

Halford questioned the policy then shouted a string of expletives, and at one point struck Mr Blake on the shoulder and ear, she said.

She later grabbed his mobile telephone and kicked out at the side of the car before threatening his job, saying: "You haven't heard the last of this. You don't know who I am. I can make your life a living hell."

Mr Blake, who has been employed as a cab driver for a Shotton-based firm for more than two years, told the court that he was "surprised and taken aback" by the episode.

Mr Blake, a burly six-footer employed by Shotton-based Adacar, said he "hadn't got a clue" regarding to the defendant's identity at the time of the fracas but said he was frightened.

Two North Wales Police officers called to the scene both testified that the taxi driver appeared "very upset" and "was shaking".

Pc Gareth Griffiths told the court his colleague got no reply when he first knocked on the door of the defendant's Flintshire home.

Once inside they found Halford and her friend Julie Jefferies who had been sitting in the back of the cab.

When questioned about the defendant's demeanour he said: "I observed that she was unsteady on her feet. As she was standing, she was swaying, her speech was slurred and her eyes were glazed."

The constable later claimed Halford was "drunk".

His colleague Pc David Bird said the defendant pointed out a small bruise on the back of her left hand when he arrived at the scene.

"I noticed she had slightly slurred speech, was unsteady on her feet and had glazed eyes," he told the court.